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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of Islamic beliefs in moderating consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions of conventional and Islamic life insurance. Second, it investigates the role of Islamic beliefs in moderating the relationship between the attitude toward conventional/Islamic life insurance and purchase intentions of these types of services.

A questionnaire was administered online in a Muslim liberal country where both types of insurance are offered. Based on a total sample of 207 responses, ANOVA tests and a structural Equation Modeling were used to test the research hypotheses.

Results show that: the higher (lower) the Islamic beliefs of individuals, the less (more) favorable their attitude will be toward conventional life insurance and the more (less) favorable their attitude will be toward Islamic life insurance; the higher (lower) the Islamic beliefs of individuals, the weaker (stronger) their purchase intentions for conventional life insurance will be and the stronger (weaker) their purchase intentions for Islamic life insurance will be; and Islamic beliefs moderate the relationships between attitudes and purchase intentions of life insurance.

Because they play a significant role in moderating consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions of conventional and Islamic life insurance, Islamic beliefs can be used as a meaningful criterion to segment the life insurance markets in (less conservative) Muslim countries. This would help insurance companies to better target their services. In a case where two segments coexist (i.e. individuals scoring low on Islamic beliefs vs individuals scoring high on Islamic beliefs), insurers should weigh different strategic options by targeting one of the two segments or both of them. Perhaps the main issue occurs when an insurer attempts to target both segments. In this case, managers should be aware of the confusion that they might create in the mind of their clients (or potential clients). Concurrently offering two types of life insurance (conventional and Islamic) may put the insurers’ credibility at stake.

Earlier studies report that in Muslim countries, the demand for life insurance is weak or negatively correlated with religion. The majority of these studies consider religion as a macro indicator (i.e. at the country level) when explaining the demand for such services. The present study further clarifies the nature of the relationship between religion and the demand for life insurance by: examining the role of Islamic beliefs (as one of the main dimensions of Muslims’ religiosity) at the micro level (i.e. at the consumer level); and investigating the moderating role of Islamic beliefs in explaining attitudes and purchase intentions of conventional and Islamic life insurance in a less conservative Muslim country.

The goal of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is to ensure that organisations embrace social responsibility and cultivate activities that provide positive impact on the environment, society, consumers, employees, communities and all other members of the public sphere. Therefore, it is highly important to enhance and augment the teaching of CSR across various disciplines in higher learning institutions. Since 2006, most organisations in Malaysia have been highly encouraged to carry out their Social Responsibility activities, with the government providing support for CSR policies through its tax reduction incentives. Various CSR awards and acknowledgement of the awards provide high value and positive reputation to the organisations that implement CSR-related activities. As a result there is an increasing awareness among businesses to focus beyond compliance with laws in order to respond to the dynamic economic, societal and environmental changes.

This paper aims to analyse the new standards on Sukuk which was issued by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institution (AAOIFI) as a result of the strong critics posed by Shaykh Taqi in the end of 2007 that 85 percent of Sukuk issuance were not in line with the teachings of Shariah.

This study reviewed samples of Sukuk prior and after the new AAOIFI pronouncement by focusing on controversial areas such as ownership transfer, pricing and guarantee element. This paper used content analysis approaches to analyse the pronouncement and the samples.

The findings showed that there were negligible changes on the principle term and condition (PTC) of the Sukuk after the pronouncement, thus it did not have much effect in changing the Shariah Advisors and industry players when deciding more authentic principles and decisions.

Based on the findings, it is acceptable that the advisors tried their very best in making efforts to minimize controversial decisions as to suit current financial practices.